Several Aspects of the Translation of the Novel Trifle-shop “Lucky hand” by Goran Petrović from Serbian into Italian

Abstract

The paper analyses the problems of translation of specific groups of words from Serbian into Italian in the novel Trifle-shop “Lucky hand” by Goran Petrović. Starting from the translation of the title of the novel, in Italy published under the title 69 cassetti (69 drawers), the analysis follows the problems of translation of specific groups of words with special reference to their semantics. The analysis focuses on the phrases difficult for translation, which are directly related to the culture of the Serbian people, as well as on the expressions with characteristics of archaic, colloquial speech or words of foreign origin, and on the compound words that are not characteristic of Serbian literary language but are the main characteristics of the writer’s literary style. The analysis and comparison of the translator’s choices of particular Italian words as the equivalents of the original Serbian words shows that the main problem of a translator’s job is the question of what remains “lost in translation”, and also the problem concerning the translation of the style of a writer like Goran Petrović.